Cost of Keeping Calculator
Enter a headcount and your own local prices to estimate the ongoing cost of keeping them — feed, a vet & health allowance, and other running costs. This covers ongoing cost only, not one-off setup like housing or fencing, which varies too much to estimate responsibly with a single figure.
Starts from about £1.10/kg — Heygates Country Chicken Layers Pellets, £21.99 per 20kg at one UK retailer. Enter what you actually pay.
A rough starting point sourced from US pricing data, converted to £ using an approximate exchange rate (not a live quote) — routine vet costs vary a lot by region regardless. Edit this to match rates in your own area.
Bedding top-ups, supplements, worming, water — use the bedding calculator for a one-off starting fill. The starting figure is a placeholder, not a sourced one.
Estimated ongoing cost
£12.75 / week · £662.99 / year
Sources checked: September 2026.
How the running cost is worked out
The monthly total is feed plus a vet and health allowance plus your other costs, each multiplied by the number of animals. Feed is the daily feed cost × 30. The vet allowance is a yearly figure per animal divided by 12. Other costs are entered per animal per month. Weekly is the monthly total × 12 ÷ 52, and yearly is monthly × 12, so the three breakdown lines always add up to the total.
The vet allowance is the softest figure in the tool. Its starting value comes from US pricing data and is converted to pounds at an approximate exchange rate when you're in UK mode; it is not a veterinary quote and varies a lot by region. Edit it to match your own area. The feed and other-costs starting values are placeholders too.
This is ongoing cost only. Housing, fencing and the purchase price of the animal are one-off costs that vary too much by build and location to estimate responsibly with a single figure.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to keep a pig per month?
- Feed dominates. For four grower pigs at £0.60 per kg, feed alone is about £108 a month (4 × 1.5 kg × 30 days × £0.60). Vet care and other costs come on top, and your own feed price changes the total considerably.
- Does this include buying the animal or building housing?
- No. It covers recurring costs only. Size the space with the housing calculator, then price your own build.
- Why is the vet allowance based on US data?
- It's the best-sourced figure we found for routine veterinary cost, and we say so on the page. It's converted for UK mode at an approximate rate and you should overwrite it with a quote from your own vet.
- Can I change the figures?
- Yes — every field is editable. Values you type are never converted or overwritten when you change region; only untouched starting values follow the region.
Related
Want to see what keeping a backyard animal is actually like?
Try My Backyard — a simple interactive simulation. Adopt one, feed it, play with it, keep its bedding clean, and see how it gets on.
Play My Backyard →